Asylum seekers prepare to board a plane at Cocos Island.Source:Supplied

GREENS Senator Sarah Hanson- Young has been slammed for ­“offensive” comments linking ­assessment of asylum seekers to the murderous terrorist regime of Iraq.

It comes as 157 Tamil asylum seekers stranded at sea for the past three weeks arrive in Australia after flying from the Cocos Islands. They could remain at Curtin Detention Centre for up to a month before being returned to India, the government confirmed.

The landing of the first asylum seekers on the mainland since last year followed Ms Hanson-Young claiming India had no legal right to assess asylum seekers in Australia for possible return to India, despite many precedents.

“What’s next? Will we allow the Sri Lankan ­government to come in and interview the Tamils? Would we go so far as to allow ISIS to interrogate those who have fled Iraq?” Ms ­Hanson-Young said yesterday.

The bizarre comparison to the ­world’s most ruthless terrorists who are laying siege to parts of Syria and Iraq — and are denounced even by ­­­­­al- Qaeda for shooting and beheading of thousands of fellow Muslims — drew immediate condemnation from the government, which claimed the ­remark was offensive to India.

“It’s predictably offensive,” ­Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said. “It is absurd to suggest (those) who have left India were being persecuted by the Indian government.

“India has been recognised by the UNHCR as a model country in the way they have treated people residing in their country from Sri Lanka. Next she will be saying people shouldn’t be sent back to New Zealand.”

Labor continued its attack on the government for seeking to return the largely Indian-resident Tamils on the basis they were economic refugees.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said they should have been taken to Christmas Island.

“I think the handling of this has not been appropriate, these people floating around on the ocean for three weeks, they could have been processed on Christmas Island weeks ago and the only thing that stopped that was Scott Morrison’s ego,” she said.

The Indian High Commission will begin processing the asylum seekers this week, with the majority believed to be Indian residents.

India, in a new deal with the ­Australian government, has agreed to consider returning all 157. Those who aren’t or don’t voluntarily return will be sent to Nauru or Manus Island.

Mr Morrison continued to insist that it did not represent a breakdown in his border protection policy.